Ultra Thin Blancpain Villeret Retrograde Blue Dial Watch Replica

September 27, 2016

In a couple of months the legendary Swiss watchmaking house Blancpain will update its collection of vintage-styled dress timekeepers with a beautiful Blancpain Collection Villeret Retrograde replica (Ref. 6653Q-1529-55B) automatic wrist watch that sports a finely crafted dial, which is executed using rare “flinque” technique. The watch will be officially presented during the upcoming Baselworld 2012 trade show.

Blancpain Collection Villeret Retrograde watch replica

Together with applied Roman numerals and a set of polished hands, the dial of the watch leaves lasting impression. I am only not sure about the shape of the numerals: to my taste, the effect would have been even more mesmerizing if Blancpain designers took some serif font for them that would better match the corporate logo, which is placed at 12 o’clock.

In two words, “flinque” technique means that an object is guilloched and then covered with multiple layers of lacquer that provide its surface with very deep, rich color.

Photos, even promotional ones, rare do the technique its due, but in real life the flinqued dials look absolutely gorgeous.

As you can see on the photos, the dial of the blue dial Blancpain copy watch features only five hands, all of them crafted from white gold: the leaf-shaped hour and minute hands tell time, the retrograde indicator at 6 o’clock indicates power reserve of its “ultra-slim” mechanism, and the serpentine hand points at current date.

By the way, the date indicator is operated not with the crown, as usual, but with a more convenient push-piece, which is hidden under one of the lugs approximately at 5 hours.

Blancpain Collection Villeret Retrograde watch replica

It is also nice to note that the new Blancpain Villeret Retrograde is offered in a comparatively slim, compact body.

The small size of the winding crown may be somewhat uncomfortable for persons with thick fingers, but, at the same time, the crown will never bite the back of your hand.

According to their official press release, the watch is animated by their in-house Caliber 7663Q automatic movement. Although details are still scarce, it is known that the movement is less than 5 millimeters thick, is built on 34 jewels and comprises whole 244 components.

Being 40 millimeters in diameter, it is less than 11 millimeters thick, which makes the watch especially comfortable when wearing a tight-cuffed shirt. Thanks to the rather short lugs, the watch will look good even on a skinny wrist.

Its mainspring stores enough power to keep the ultra thin Blancpain watch replica going for as long as 72 hours, so you can leave it unattended for the whole weekend and it will still keep ticking on a gloomy Monday morning.